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THE JANUARY 1964

ARCHIVE PROJECT

MICRO SITE

Wendy Tribaldos�Developing Web Museum Projects�Johns Hopkins University

Info@wendytribaldos.com

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THIS IS THEIR STORY

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No physical building or collections.

Exhibits and programs = Panama City´s public areas.

Visitors learn, interact and enjoy experiences in freely accessed cultural hubs.

Launch date: April 2019

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We are losing this valuable episode of Panamanian history. It is time to remedy this, and the Panama City Museum stands to play a crucial role.

Good afternoon, esteemed Board Members. My name is Wendy Tribaldos, and I am lead curator for the already approved and planned exhibits that will showcase the January 1964 events that are slated to open in April of next year. As you well know, The Panama City Museum diverges from the traditional museum experience, as it does not have a physical building or collections. Its exhibits and public programs are presented in Panama´s public areas, allowing visitors to learn, interact and enjoy experiences in freely accessed cultural hubs.

Curatorial research for the January 1964 exhibits has revealed that Panama lacks primary source records about these events; in many cases, the information available is laced with rumours, hoaxes, and hearsay. Our team has conducted extensive qualitative and quantitative user interviews that recognized this as a major problem for members of our current priority audience.

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Primary and secondary resources

Vetted, standards- based historical repository

Maps and information to visit and participate

Physical exhibits and public programs

Generates revenue by online donations

Partly sustainable

Open source content management system

Mobile first micro site

Stories/Images of Panamanians and Americans that lived in the US-governed Canal Zone.

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Oral archive

GOALS

“One-stop shop" of reliable historical resources of the January 1964 events in Panama

KEY OUTCOME

THE JANUARY 1964 ARCHIVE PROJECT

To solve this problem, our team is proposing to create a microsite that hosts a “one stop shop” of reliable historical resources of the January 1964 events in Panama. We have also identified five other important components as part of the project´s minimum viable product.

The first one is to build a mobile first site, as most of our core audience depends on their cell phones to connect to the internet. We aim to accomplish this goal while adhering to a standards-based site chock-full of quality content. The site will also use an open source software platform, as we are aware that funds are limited and also because the City Museum is philosophically aligned to the view that knowledge should be freely shared. We have conducted extensive peer site research and expert interviews; as a result, we suggest using Omeka, a well-regarded open-source content management system for sharing digital collections and online exhibits. It also works in more than 50 languages, a vital consideration to our mostly Spanish speaking audience.

Omeka has also proven effective to collect unmediated oral histories, another key driver for our project. We aim to help people become active participants in defining and shaping their own stories, to create more inclusive narratives and diversify the historical record. The site will showcase the personal stories and photographs of Panamanians and Americans who lived through the January 1964 events. This goal is also closely aligned to the City Museum´s strategic planning, which incorporates a strong co authorship component. We will accomplish the latter without losing sight that this will be a vetted historical repository, as we identified during research that this as an important need for our audience. Rest assured, this archive WILL a standards-based site chock-full of quality content.

The website will also include donor prompts to provide it with some operating funds. We are aware that most of its financing will have to come from the City Museum´s own resources, as a culture of philanthropy is underdeveloped in Panama. However, we want to kick start in our country what is growing global trend and include crowd funded donations to make the site partly self-sustainable. The site will also have clear and straightforward financial reports for accountability and transparency. Lastly, we want this website to serve as a guide and inspiration to participate in the January 1964 public programs and physical exhibits that will be showcased in Panama City for our 500 year anniversary celebration.

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Target Audience

This website development plan took into account audience research to develop a coherent strategy based on their needs.

Panamanians and Zonians that wish to include their memories of the January 1964 events for future preservation

Witnesses

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Local and international visitors that want to access information for scholarship, research, etc…or just for fun!

Enthusiasts

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People who wish to visit MuCPa´s physical exhibits and participate in its public programs

Visitors

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High school and university students that require information for class and homework assignments

Students

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Secondary school and university educators that need to develop curricular plans to teach this unit as part of their lessons.

Teachers

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The January 1964 website development plan took into account audience research to develop a coherent strategy based on their needs. Our digital team created 5 user personas to guide our design process, which we labeled with simple tabs: WITNESSES, ENTHUSIASTS, VISITORS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS. Succinctly described, our target audience is comprised of Panamanians and Americans that wish to add their memories of the January 1964 events for future preservation. Also, we will cater to local and international users that want to access information for fun or research. We also aim to service visitors that wish to visit the City Museum´s physical exhibits and participate in its public programs. Another important user group will be secondary school and university students and educators that address this historical incident as part of Panama´s curriculum.

We are aware that there are other user personas that might visit our site, but we were determined to not get sidetracked by these secondary audiences. We don´t want to build a site for everyone, that ends up servicing nobody.

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Mobile FIRST… yet responsive

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Fast-loading

Optimized images and other functionalities

High Usability

As few items as possible without losing functionality

Minimized text inputs

To expedite matters and limit bounce rate

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No Mouse

A mouse will not be required to navigate the site.

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Social Sharing

Via social networks, chats and emails

FACTOID

There are 170 mobile phones in Panama for every 100 inhabitants - 6.9 million active accounts vis a vis 4.37 million people

Even though our site will be mobile-first, it will still be responsive to computers and tablets. There are 170 mobile phones in Panama for every 100 inhabitants – that is, 6.9 million active accounts vis a vis 4.37 million people. Those are reflective facts, and one of the many we used to choose mobile first. This was not an easy concept to accept, as many in our team were initially concerned about design. Yet our user research was clear: practical matters trump over a razzle-dazzle presentation.

Our development team strives for a simple interface that used card sort and prototyping techniques to test users with varied ages and digital experience levels as we developed its architecture and navigation sets. This will be a fast-loading site where a mouse will not be required for navigation. Pages will have high usability with limited text inputs to expedite use and limit bounce rate. Social network sharing will be enabled and encouraged, but no comments will be allowed onsite as this was a need voiced by our audience. They asked the conversation to take place on social media and not the archive per se, as they wish it to remain impartial and non judgemental.

The site’s content plan will provide editorial guidelines, policies, and procedures to help ensure consistency and accuracy. Search engine optimization will be used to help users easily find the site online. After its launch, Google Analytics will be used to examine the site’s web traffic and make agile decisions to tweak it for the better for at least one year.

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Success Metrics

Friendly

Easy to Use

Informative

Clear

Impartial

No Jargon

Users will be able to locate, download and share all documents and audiovisual materials with no copyright restrictions

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Users will contribute 300 stories, videos, or photographs in the first 6 months of the project.

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Contributors will report feeling a sense of connection to heritage and report a desire to continue engaging with MuCPa.

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80% of mobile visitors will report being able to find information about visiting the programs/exhibits in less than three clicks.

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Raise $5000 in one year to support the project.

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Fast

Organized

Practical

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Interviews
Card sort
Prototyping

Developers tested users with varied ages and digital experience levels using both analog and digital tools

Extensive User Research

YOU CAN VIEW THE SAMPLE PAGE HERE

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THE JANUARY 1964 ARCHIVE PROJECT

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Focused on audience needs.
Based on strategic planning and best practices
Local alliances and partnerships can provide content/funds for project.
MuCPa´s January 9th current exhibits are fully funded and moving ahead to their April 2019 opening.

Internal - Strenghts

Collecting history through digital archives is cheaper, larger, more diverse and inclusive than traditional repositories
Changes in technology + feasibility in cost and resources
No identifiable thematic competitor.

External - Opportunities

An archival website was not contemplated in the January 9th exhibit design.
Lack of intellectual property on some content.
Weak brand, as MuCPa has not opened yet.
Staff constraints to mediate content; this project will require analog hands-on work.

Internal - Weakeness

Attracting traffic to the site
Building trust with potential contributors.
Dealing with trolls, bots and junk content.
Political interference and electoral whims as this project emanates from the Mayor`s office.

External - Threats

THIS IS THEIR STORY

Our team is aware of the challenges we face to make a successful site. Chief among them is that City Museum´s resources are limited. That is why we have designed this site to use free, open source software. However, staff and other resources must be allocated to implement it and make it sustainable, actionable and effective.

Social media will be key to provide outreach and engagement opportunities to promote the site once it is launched, coupled with promotion via traditional media outlets and relationships with local partners. For organizations with limited budgets like ours, a partnership with a local university might be a marriage made in heaven. Students can assist us in helping mediate interviews for the oral archive project, incorporate content from the museum’s curatorial work, crawl the web to cull research information and even promote it effectively for us.

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The January 1964

Conocemos el pasado, entendemos el presente e imaginamos el futuro.

�We strive to know our past, understand the present and imagine our future.

Archive Project

More rapidly than ever, digital technology is changing the way we learn, work, interact and entertain. There is no need to spend a ton of resources to canvass this great power and create an effective site that as we have expressed before, serves as a sorely needed one-stop shop for archival information about the January 1964 events in Panama.

We must act soon and create this repository as soon as possible, as these incidents happened 54 years ago and its witnesses are at the end of their life span. If we do not act fast, we are in danger of losing vital evidence of a pivotal episode of Panamanian history. Also, bear in mind that the buzz we will create with this out of the box project will have people talking about our work, and will further the museum´s mission and priorities. Lastly, our team has no doubt that our success in creating this archive will influence for the best local museum-wide perceptions of the use of digital technologies to effectively reach visitors.

Thank you for your time.